Harrison’s steps halted, his alarmed eyes glancing at me. Unlike him, I’d been personally trained by his Chief of Battle since I was young, so he knew how serious my threat was.
“The Warlock is not attacking!” Imogen’s distressed revelation reached us when she ran out of the wreckage with the guard. “There is no one there!”
Shaken, I glanced at my mate, his form writhing in pain on the floor. Blood spilled from his mouth, bruises rapidly blooming along his chest, stomach, and arms.
Harrison and I exchanged a horrified glance, and we ran back towards Braxton. “Brax, do you hear me?” I cradled his face. “Raithian is not—”
“Get her out of here!” he ordered and scrambled to his knees, covering me with his body a moment before the invisible force hit him again. He crashed into me, blowing us both backwards.
Lifting a trembling hand, Braxton shot a fire sphere from his palm that slammed against the far wall, sending fire up the ceiling.
“Hold him down!” I ordered, scrambling up again.
Everyone thrusted themselves at him, gripping arms, thighs, feet, shoulders, wrists, anything they could grab, but he jerked against their hold.
“Braxton, stop,” I begged. “Raithian is NOT here. You are destroying the castle!”
“He is in his mind,” Imogen gasped, finally realizing what was happening. “The Warlock King is attacking him through the mindscape…”
Terror spread through my entire being as my gaze lowered to my mate. If Raithian was using their connection to assault him, there was nothing we could do to stop it. My trembling hands fell on his body, seeing his scales desperately trying to stop the blows, but they failed. The threat was in his mind, and no one could prevent that.
Braxton’s back suddenly arched off the stone from another strike, his head snapping to the side. I watched in horror while his skin sliced open from the cheek to the forehead, blood dripping from the wound. Imogen and the others exchanged panicked glances as a weak moan escaped his mouth.
After a moon-minute passed, the Warlock King’s brutality seemed to end, but the injuries my mate had suffered were too grave for me to feel relieved.
Struggling to breathe as large hematomas painted his skin in red, purple, and blue, Braxton whimpered. Whatever strength he had left faded, and he sagged under our hold, his eyes closing.
“Is Brax going to be okay?” Charlotte sobbed, caressing his arm, but I couldn’t answer.
I couldn’t even breathe.
His injuries were so severe that his healing wasn’t coming to the surface. Even his scales had stopped moving, vanishing, unable to help him. The image of him like this suddenly melded with a memory I never wanted to relive. The day I rushed him out of the Mirror World… when he was dying from his sickness.
“No…” I clambered to my feet, only then realizing the ruckus coming from my room.
The sounds filtering through weren’t roars, nor growls, or even whines. They were a desperate call. A Dragon call. Running into our quarters, I found Tharion perched on the side of the castle, his hand reaching into the room, sharp claws carving tracks along the stone floor.
He was trying to reach Braxton.
Pulling his hand away, he glanced inside, his slitted eye catching my presence before his distressed call came again, almost saying, “Give him to me!”
“Bring Braxton in here!!” I shouted at the others, whirling around, and running out into the hall. “Tharion can save him, bring him inside!”
Without hesitation, Imogen and Harrison carried their prince and rushed after me, placing him in the middle of the room. Tharion’s hand immediately slipped inside, his fingers gently curling around my mate’s body and lifting him.
“Please take me with him,” I begged, seeing him pull Braxton through the window.
His other hand came in, curling around my torso.
“Evanna!” Kingston shouted behind me as Tharion pulled me out, flying my mate and me towards the Dragon lairs.
True fear captured my being as I looked at my mate across from me, unconscious in Tharion’s grasp. Loud music blared from below us, our people continuing to dance and rejoice, oblivious that their savior—Caelisium’s new hope and the only man I’d ever loved—now battled for his life.
Flying us into an empty lair, Tharion took us through a hidden tunnel to another part of the mountain. As he did, other Dragons joined, following us to a large cavern. A sanctuary. One by one, they flew in behind us, answering his call and forming a circle along the space while Tharion placed us both gently onto the ground.
The moment my feet touched the earth, I rushed towards my mate, kneeling beside him before glancing up at Tharion. “Can you heal him?”
Tharion leaned closer, eyes changing from red to gold he and Braxton connected, but the glow was too dim to give me hope. Their connection was weak. He tried either way. Glancing at the others, I witnessed their irises acquire the dim golden hue, and then they began to hum. I’d seen them do this before, though briefly, the day Ember fell to her death while trying to save Spike.
It was a healing circle.
Gently placing a hand over Braxton’s forehead, I took account of all his injuries. His condition was worse than the day I took him from the Mirror World. Raithian had somehow beat him within an inch of his life.
Everything inside me began to crack, threatening to undo me. No. He couldn’t die. I would not lose him. Not now, not ever. Bracing myself as hard as I could, I hung tightly to every ounce of courage and hope in me.
I couldn’t fall apart now, Braxton needed me.
Glancing at all the Dragons that surrounded us, I convinced myself they would give their lives for their Devenish Prince if that was what it took to save him and began to gently caress his hair.
“You are going to be well. You are going to be just fine, Baby.” With the vow, I concentrated on soothing him, his raspy moans and painfully shallow breaths carving paths of anguish through me.
As the moon-minutes passed, his bruises began to diminish. It was working. The healing circle poured their magic into him, eventually igniting his own. Braxton’s blood stopped trickling out of him, and the sliced skin on his face began to stitch back together. Yet, I held down the breath of relief wanting to burst from my lungs. I wouldn’t breathe easily until he was awake and well, just like I had promised.
My gaze followed the path of the healing magic along his torso, noticing only then that some of the scales that tried so desperately to protect him from an unseen power were cracked and charred.
How was that even possible? How had Raithian done this to him?
One after the other, Braxton’s injuries reversed, leaving behind unblemished skin once more. To my dread, I realized that even after he was healed, the golden glow in his family’s eyes had not intensified; instead, it seemed weaker. His energy was not strengthening. Braxton wasn’t waking up.
“What else can you do to help him?” I asked Tharion once they all disconnected from my mate, their irises returning to their normal colors.
Leaning in, he nudged Braxton with his nose, making his form sway over the ground, but not awaken. Silence stretched between us, turning into scorching dread when Tharion’s eyes connected with mine.
“No!” I stood, fury replacing the agony threatening to capture my being. “This is not the end. Do you hear me? There must be something else you can do, so do it!” I ordered. “You are not giving up on him, Tharion! I forbid it. He is your prince. This is your son—!”